About Me

I finally made it to the adventure of a lifetime and now I'm a citizen of the World. Indy author, blogger, in love with being an author - Mom of two grown children and widow of the most wonderful man to ever live - Devon "Pete" Hall.

Friday, September 25, 2015

What I Love About the Philippines

Now that I’ve been in country for about three weeks, I have
definitely grown fond of several distinctly Filipino quirks and institutions.
So here’s a working list of the “Best of the Philippines According to Kathy”:

The kindness of the Filipino people and their generally
happy nature. So many Filipinos living here have very little to smile about,
yet they do – easily and frequently. Today, while I was strolling in the rain
with my umbrella, I passed a young man who was sitting outside a café. I
glanced over and he smiled widely and said, “It will be better weather
tomorrow, ma’am.” That small gesture meant a lot to a solo traveler far from
home.

Trudi's! Right on Alona Beach

Having been both a cab driver and a shuttle driver, I just
have to take my hat off to the professional drivers of this country. How they
manage to get through a day without having an accident is a mystery to me.
Vanessa and I constantly shook our heads while she was here at the fact that we
did not see one fend-bender – amazing. And a special thank you to people who
will never read this, our Baquio drivers Edwin and Arnold who literally gave us
free tours as they drove us around the city and Jereme, who took us on our
Bohol tour. Good men all.

I love – LOVE – the food here. I have found my own little café
– Trudi’s – right on the Alona Beach and through four meals the food has been
consistently wonderful. I’ve had the chicken curry, pictured here, twice!

The Filipinos love their cakes and bread so everywhere you
go there are bakeries. Having a sweet tooth myself, I’ve enjoyed mostly window
shopping the goodies, but have had one heavenly piece of cake in Baguio.

Every taxi driver has had their radio on and tuned to
American oldies, and I’ve overheard several people singing out loud, without
restraint and with no cares as to whether they are any good or not. Karaoke is
big here.

The people of the Philippines are 85% Catholic and one
lovely ritual they have is to genuflect repeatedly. Every cabbie did it before
taking off and even the boat pilots before each trip down river. Even though I’m
a non-believer, the act did make me feel somehow safer. Charming.

The landscape here is either lush and green beyond belief or
vast expanses of water rimmed with mostly white sand beaches or mangroves. For
the simple beauty of nature, I doubt that the Philippines can be beat.

I have been asked how old I am repeatedly here; it’s not an
inappropriate question in this country and age is not a disease or disability
either. I have been granted respect and not a small amount of awe because I’m
out in the world doing this adventure thing by myself at what Filipinos believe
to be an advanced age - 63. In fact, we had one cab driver in Cebu who complained of
how terribly old he was and it turned out he was only 54. I told him that in
the States he would still be considered pretty young. He didn’t believe me.

I’m sure there’s more that will come to me later, but for
now this is my salute to the Philippines. I’ve enjoyed my stay so far.